Bonnets, Birthdays and Butlins #littleloves

I’m afraid I’ve neglected my blog for a few weeks, its been such a busy time and I’ve been embracing the fun. Following a quiet few months, April has sprung into life, the weather has been stunning and so much has been happening. We’ve hosted family for Granddad’s birthday celebrations, participated in Easter bonnet parades, watched and performed in talent shows, been on a family holiday to Butlins and finally celebrated Easter, not bad for the first 17 days of April. Thankfully we’ve a few quieter days now until we go back to school a week today.

The View from Grandad’s Birthday Lunch

Bultlins, our family’s happy place

Easter decorations chez Sparkles

I’m an Amazon Prime subscriber and each month we get a free Kindle book, this month I chose After You Left by Carol Mason. Its the story of a woman whose husband walks out of the marriage after 3 days and her friendship with an older woman who helps her to recover. Whilst I’m not sure I would strongly recommend it, it was an easy and pleasant read, the perfect book to dip into as you watched the children doing their different activities at Butlins. Ooh I’ve been busy this month so far. I’ve watched a Brownie talent show which was refreshingly good with impressions, the T-Rex was brilliant, ACDC tribute, the top 10 Man City players, the alphabet recited backwards etc.. Little Miss was due to do a duet with her friend but she was sick on the day and she ended up wowing us all with a solo, I was very proud. I’ve also watched the primary school’s Easter bonnet parade. This is a very big deal in the school, a tradition that goes back for more than a century (the school is still in the original building!) and it is one of the highlights of the school year. The bonnets were lovely and it is just so sweet how the children walk up and down a cat walk to show their hats to the appreciative audience.

At Butlins, I got to watch three new Skyline Gang shows, Little man adores the Skyline Gang so we made sure that we were in the pavilion for each performance. I also got to watch the children trying out new sports and activities at Butlins, whilst I joined in with rounders and cricket, I watched the fencing. The instructor was an old acquaintance, my family are always amazed how I can go somewhere and know someone!

Yes, this is the first picture I’ve ever published online of my children, but I think they are suitably disguised not to be recognisable. I have made an Easter egg hunt for the children, it was a mix of activities and chocolate and for the first time in a couple of years the weather allowed us to do the hunt in the garden! I also made an Easter lunch which was delicious. More of both of these activities in my (still to be written) Easter post.

The sunshine has definitely brought out the colour in my wardrobe. Yellow seems to be my go to colour, I have a lovely yellow broderie top and a Lazy Jacks sweatshirt, perfect with jeans or cropped trousers. Before we had the fun of Butlins, I had Little Man’s Annual Review on the last day of term, he has an EHCP and a full time 1:1 TA with him in the classroom to support him. We are so proud of what he has achieved, when we were asked to consider adopting him, his future was uncertain, he was a one year old who was unable to crawl and there were many questions on his future development and possible diagnoses. Now after years of physiotherapy, speech therapy etc.. his future looks positive and he is the most easy going and happy boy, his support is to help his learning. The Annual Review was a really positive meeting, he makes so much progress and we really couldn’t be prouder of him.

At Butlins, I heard lots of laughter and screams at the funfair and Splashworld and of course the Skyline Gang’s songs have catchy tunes which you find yourself humming along! So the Easter celebrations are over now. I’m hoping for a quieter few days of holiday visiting local places. It is very busy here at present, we’re a popular destination for Easter breaks, so we’re heading off to some of the quieter places off the tourist trail. I have booked some activities at our local sports centre to enjoy. There are also a few play dates organised to keep us busy. Mr S is working away this week so I need to be out and about to keep myself sane.